Cambridge United have been put up for sale by the club’s board.

Thu 6th Jan 2011 | Clubs Ownership

Issuing a statement on the club’s website, Directors of the club hope to attract new investment after struggling for the last 18 months to survive.

“Football today is a business that generates intense interest and passion, but also pushes the boundaries of good business sense. During the last 18 months the club has worked diligently to provide the maximum available funds to the playing side of the business.

However, our results on the pitch combined with the poor economy, has caused attendances to drop and income with it. The Board believes that in this climate further investment is required in order to push the club forward to higher levels.

At present, our income cannot sustain the current level of expenditure on and off the field. The most important consideration, despite everyone's desire to be successful on the pitch, is survival and the long term future of the club.

With the possible re-location of the club, providing the potential for additional revenue streams, our unique and self sustaining youth development scheme and our continually increasing presence within our local community, the long term future of the club can be extremely bright.

However, in the short term, we must either cut expenditure to live within our means or attract additional investment to close the financial shortfall.

Competing today in the Football Conference, with the prize of being a Football League Club and the associated funding, is requiring an ever increasing playing budget, often with little initial expectation of a return.

The Board is looking for fresh investment into the club to continue the development of young players, provide funds for the first team to push forward and also to work with our landlords as the plans to develop a new stadium come closer. That investment could also include a complete takeover of the club and one option within that could be the formation of a Community Trust.

We are seeking interested parties who must be people of integrity, financial strength, a love of football, and hopefully with ties to Cambridge. As one of the fastest growing, well known internationally and wealthiest cities in England, Cambridge is worthy of Football League status.

The Board also extends the offer of dialogue with CFU and any other fan groups to look at the financial viability of creating such a Community Trust to effectively take over the ownership and running of the Club. This process can run concurrently with the search for potential new ownership/ investment. All enquiries should be addressed to the Company Secretary for consideration by the Board of Directors”.

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